The 1962 Seattle World's Fair, otherwise known as Century 21, gave visitors a glimpse of the future and left Seattle with a lasting legacy. The exposition gave Seattle world-wide recognition, effectively "putting it on the map." Years of planning went into the fair through the hard work of visionaries, go-getters, civic boosters, and dreamers. Many of the concepts and icons of Century 21 remain ingrained in Seattle culture, even as the "real" 21st Century begins.
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To many, there never was a fair to compare to the Seattle World's Fair, or Century 21. Between April 21 and October 21, 1962, close to 10 million people visited the fair to climb the Space Needle, ride the Monorail, see the exhibits, take in a show, and enjoy the food, fun, and festivities. Maybe one of these people was you.
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Chief Seattle, or si?al in his native Lushootseed language, led the Duwamish and Suquamish tribes as the first Euro-American settlers arrived in the greater Seattle area in the 1850s. Baptized Noah by Catholic missionaries, Seattle was regarded as a "firm friend of the Whites," who named the region's future central city in his honor. He was a respected leader among Salish tribes, signing the Point Elliott (Mukilteo) Treaty of 1855, which relinquished tribal claims to most of the area, and opposing Native American attempts to dislodge settlers during the "Indian Wars" of 1855-1856. Chief Seattle retired to the Suquamish Reservation at Port Madison, and died there on June 7, 1866. This essay includes a sound recording of the correct pronunciation of Chief Seattle's name, provided by Skagit elder Vi Hilbert (1918-2008).File 5071: Full Text >

In this sound recording, renowned Skagit elder Vi Hilbert (1918-2008) correctly pronounces Chief Seattle's name and other common names in Lushootseed, the language of the several Coast Salish peoples. The recording was done on December 7, 2006, by Janet Yoder, a longtime student of Hilbert's and who has written on her life and work in preserving the Lushootseed language. The file also contains a transcription of the tape.
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Gordon Clinton served as the mayor of Seattle more than a half century ago, but he helped lay the groundwork for the city that exists today. During his eight years in office, Seattle adopted its first comprehensive plan; began cleaning up Lake Washington; reached out to a former enemy by establishing a Sister City program in Japan; and welcomed the future with Century 21, the Seattle World’s Fair. Clinton’s tenure also marked a transition between the sedate fifties and the turbulent sixties, when a number of festering and contentious social issues began to move onto the public stage. The city’s first "sit-in" to protest racial discrimination took place in his office. Neighborhood activists took to the streets to demand changes in the design of the Seattle Freeway (today’s Interstate 5), which they derisively called "the Big Ditch." Clinton reacted to these and other challenges with a mix of Eisenhower-era conventionality and forward-thinking progressivism. He left City Hall in 1964 with an untarnished reputation for fairness and integrity. "My Democratic friends said I appointed too many Republicans," he told HistoryLink co-founder Walt Crowley in a 2004 interview. "My Republican friends said I appointed too many Democrats. So I did it just right."
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Bonnie Dunbar, the first woman from Washington state to become an astronaut, rocketed into space five times. Only a handful of other American astronauts have heard the countdown to liftoff from the inside of a spacecraft more often than she has. After her last flight, in 1998, she worked as an administrator for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and then as chief executive officer of the Museum of Flight in Seattle. But she defines herself as first and foremost an engineer, with an abiding interest in the problems that need to be solved if human beings are ever going to be able to explore the farther reaches of space. She loved the view she had of earth, looking down while orbiting 200 miles above the planet, but she was equally inspired by looking the other way, straight ahead, toward the stars, into infinity and the future. "There's no edge," she says. "We really won't know what's out there until we explore, and we need to do that" (Tate interview).
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Polly Dyer is a Seattle conservationist and environmentalist. Her dedication to safeguarding Washington's Olympic coastline and forests and to protecting wilderness areas across the state has had a profound impact on the successful preservation of Washington's natural areas -- untouched, untrammeled wilderness. For more than a half century, Dyer has inspired her peers and succeeding generations of conservationists. Her efforts have ranged from grand -- lobbying congress and the state legislature, spearheading major environmental movements, rallying recruits with hundreds of stirring public speeches -- to grassroots -- feeding and housing wilderness workers and serving as "den mother" and entry point into conservationism for scores of young people.
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A retired municipal bond lawyer, James R. Ellis has never held public office, never headed a major corporation, and never been rich. Yet he has left a bigger footprint on Seattle and King County than perhaps any other single individual, as a citizen activist for more than half a century. He was a leader in the campaigns to clean up Lake Washington in the 1950s; to finance mass transit, parks, pools, and other public facilities through "Forward Thrust" bonds in the 1960s; to preserve farmlands in the 1970s; to build and later expand the Washington State Convention & Trade Center in the 1980s, and to establish the Mountains to Sound Greenway along the I-90 corridor in the 1990s. He is known for his tenacity when taking on an issue: most of these projects became realities only after years of opposition. He's been slammed from the right as a Communist and from the left as a lackey for the business community. He has also been much honored, including a First Citizen award from the Seattle-King County Association of Realtors in 1968, a national Jefferson Award in 1976, and a Lifetime Achievement award from American Lawyer in 2005.
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Ethiopians and Eritreans have lived in the Seattle area since the late 1960s, beginning with university students. From 1980 with the passage of the Refugee Act until about 2000, thousands of Ethiopians and Eritreans arrived in Seattle as immigrants and as refugees as a result of oppressive political regimes, drought, and war. In the early twenty-first century, Ethiopians and Eritreans have come to the United States through the Diversity Immigration Visa program, which grants permanent resident cards to potential immigrants based on a lottery system. Both Ethiopian and Eritrean communities have thrived in Seattle, but also face similar challenges. These include preparing the aging first generation of immigrants for retirement and keeping children in school and helping them to become good citizens through after-school programming at their respective community centers. Community centers provide a social space and many programs including those designed to help preserve culture and heritage. The Ethiopian Community Mutual Association welcomes all Ethiopians. (Ethiopians are ethnically diverse and speak different languages.) The Eritrean Association in Greater Seattle serves the Eritrean community.
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Dan and Nancy Evans have devoted nearly half a century to public service, in and out of political office, with a level of commitment matched by few of their fellow citizens. As a three-term governor of Washington and later United States senator, Dan Evans earned the nickname "Straight Arrow." He was so widely admired and his administration so untouched by scandal that a prominent columnist once joked he was "no fun." Nancy Evans served on the boards of innumerable educational and nonprofit organizations, including the Board of Trustees of her alma mater, Whitman College. The Evanses are known for the heft of their Rolodex and their willingness to tap into it in support of various good causes. Together they personify the term "power couple" in Washington. Among their many honors are the First Citizens award from the Seattle-King County Association of Realtors in 2003 and the A. K. Guy Award from the YMCA of Greater Seattle in 2013.
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The Everett Massacre of Sunday, November 5, 1916, has been called the bloodiest labor confrontation in Northwest history. On that day a group of Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), also known as Wobblies, traveled from Seattle to Everett aboard the steamers Verona and Calista, intending to speak at the corner of Hewitt and Wetmore avenues in support of a strike by local shingle-weavers. A group of citizen-deputies under the authority of Snohomish County Sheriff Donald McRae (1868-?) refused to let them land. A shot was fired, followed by several minutes of gunfire that killed at least five Wobblies and two deputies. The ships returned to Seattle, where 74 IWW members were arrested and taken back to the Snohomish County jail. Teamster Thomas H. Tracy was first to be tried, for the murder of Jefferson Beard. In the dramatic trial that followed, held in Seattle, Tracy was acquitted and the other Wobblies were released.
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Seattle-born actress Frances Farmer, a rising star in the 1930s, is remembered today more for her unfortunate life story than for her once promising career. Talented and beautiful, Farmer was also a willful, troubled, and self-destructive woman. After a period of increasingly erratic behavior, she was declared legally insane and institutionalized in 1944. Released in 1950, she spent the rest of her life in relative obscurity. Since her death in 1970, however, she has become something of a cult figure, the subject of three books, three movies (the best known of which is the 1982 film Frances, starring Jessica Lange), several off-Broadway plays, scores of magazine articles, and a song, "Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle," by Kurt Cobain, which includes this line: "She'll come back as fire, to burn all the liars, and leave a blanket of ash on the ground."
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The once-promising career of Seattle-born actress Frances Farmer had declined by the early 1940s. A talented but troubled woman, she was relegated to minor roles in low-budget films and then dropped by the major studios altogether. In 1944, after a period of increasingly erratic behavior, she was declared legally insane and institutionalized. She attempted a comeback in the 1950s but never regained the momentum of her early years in Hollywood and on Broadway. Since her death in 1970, however, she has become something of a cult figure, better known for her harrowing personal life than for her relatively brief career. This is Part Two of her story.
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The great-grandson of Oregon Trail emigrants, Donald Isle Foster hails from a solid line of Pacific Northwest pioneers. He first came to prominence in the business community as the Director of Exhibits for Seattle's 1962 World's Fair (the Century 21 Exposition). Later he earned a reputation as one of the town's consummate aesthetes and a pillar of the local arts establishment during his 30 years with the taste-making Foster / White Gallery in Seattle's Pioneer Square neighborhood. Along the way, Foster fostered the careers of many of the Northwest's finest artists and he also benefited the community by serving on high-profile posts with the Seattle Symphony board, the Seattle Repertory Theater board, and the guiding committee of the Seattle Art Museum. (Note: This essay benefits greatly from extensive quotes taken from a recorded interview with Foster conducted in 2010 by Kathrine Beck and C. David Hughbanks.) Donald Foster died on March 24, 2012, in Palm Springs, California, survived by his longtime partner, Terry Arnett.
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Patrick Goldsworthy's initial entry into hiking was through the original Sierra Club Chapter in his hometown of Berkeley, California, where he realized it took citizens' active participation to protect the beautiful places they loved. After moving to Seattle, he co-founded the Pacific Northwest Chapter of the Sierra Club and the North Cascades Conservation Council (N3C). He worked for decades to protect the North Cascades, playing an instrumental role in establishing the North Cascades National Park, preventing High Ross Dam, and creating designated wilderness areas within the park boundaries. Goldsworthy earned a respected position amongst his colleagues for his humble persistence and leadership, his consensus making skills, his ability to inspire loyalty amongst others, and his unwavering devotion to the ideals of conservationism.
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In 1968, Larry Gossett served time on the top floor of the King County Courthouse after being arrested for leading a sit-in at Franklin High School. In 1993, he returned to the same floor -- which had been converted from jail to office space -- as a member of the King County Council. His career -- from Black Power activist in the 1960s, African American community organizer in the 1970s and 1980s, to his current position as an elected politician -- has followed the ups and downs of the civil rights movement in Seattle and its aftermath.
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R. R. "Bob" Greive was a political force in Washington state for more than 40 years, first as a state senator and then as a member of the King County Council. He was a tireless fundraiser, an astute tactician, and a master of hardball politics. As Senate Majority Leader in the 1950s and 1960s, he solicited donations from lobbyists and used the money to help elect senators who, in turn, helped him retain his position as Majority Leader. He once threatened to vote for a Republican as chairman of the County Council if his fellow Democrats didn't let him keep an influential committee chairmanship. Although he advocated affordable housing and other programs that benefited the poor, he scoffed at the idea that politicians were motivated by altruistic notions of public service. "Now, I'm not saying that it's impossible for a person to be motivated just by public service," he said in an oral history recorded in 2001, "but I don't think that's very often the case. I think a person is motivated more by the love of battle and the power and importance and the instant notoriety and all of the other things that go to make up a human being" (Greive, 6).
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The Hanford Reach National Monument -- one of the most important wildlife refuges in Washington state -- is an inadvertent legacy of the United States' nuclear weapons program. Lands within the monument originally served as a buffer around the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. For nearly half a century, Hanford was the primary source of plutonium for the nation's nuclear arsenal. The need for secrecy and security kept the surrounding area free from development. Wildlife flourished, even in the shadows of the reactors that produced, along with plutonium, some of the most toxic waste in the world. The reservation itself remains off limits to the public, while it undergoes the most complicated and costly cleanup in history. But it is encircled by an ecological treasure trove, including the last free-flowing stretch of the Columbia River, the most valuable salmon spawning grounds left on the river, and the largest remnant of undisturbed shrub-steppe habitat in eastern Washington.
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Cecile Ann Hansen -- a descendant within the family of Chief Si 'ahl ("Chief Seattle") -- has served as the elected chair of her people since 1975. During those decades the Duwamish (or in the Salish language of Lushootseed: the Dkhw'Duw'Absh) have made much progress in the ongoing efforts to nurture their arts, language, and culture. But Hansen's original goal -- and the driving imperative behind her sustained efforts ever since -- has simply been to "correct an injustice." Or more precisely: a multitude of injustices that have faced the Duwamish -- ranging from the initial loss of their traditional lands (the town site of Seattle and much of King County) via the Point Elliot Treaty of 1855, to the loss of their fishing rights along the Duwamish River, to the even more tragic refusal of the federal government to grant them official recognition as a legitimate historic tribe.
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Despite a late start in politics and competing in a field dominated by men at the time, Jeannette C. Hayner became one of Washington's most powerful state legislators. In 1972 -- 30 years after getting her law degree and after raising three children -- she was elected to the State House of Representatives. Four years later she was elected to the State Senate. While still in her freshman term, she became leader of the Republican caucus in a surprising coup, and within two years was the first woman in state history to be Senate Majority Leader. Short, impeccably dressed, charming, and tough as nails, she ran her caucus with an iron fist, insisting that all members vote together. Her strong leadership made Republicans a force after years of domination by the Democrats. Although a staunch conservative, generally for limited government and against raising taxes, she also was a pragmatist who worked with the opposition to tackle budget crises and manage growth. She never lost an election. When she retired in 1993 at age 73, she had served as a caucus leader longer than anyone in state history. And then she helped launch TVW, Washington state's version of C-Span.
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On November 5, 1916, two boatloads of workers and members of the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World, often called "Wobblies") traveled from Seattle to Everett to hold a free speech demonstration in support of striking shingle mill workers in Everett, and in support of First Amendment rights. They were met at the dock by local police, hired guards, and citizen deputies. Shots were fired, fatally wounding or killing outright five "Wobblies" aboard the steamer Verona. Two deputies also died on the pier, apparently shot in the back by their comrades during the fusillade. Seventy-four Wobblies were arrested on their return to Seattle and IWW leader Thomas H. Tracy was charged with murder. All were later released. Tracy was acquitted on May 5, 1917.
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On June 15, 1917, Seattle's Fremont Bridge, spanning the Lake Washington Ship Canal, opens to traffic. The bridge is built to connect the neighborhood of Fremont with the west side of Lake Union at the base of Queen Anne Hill. The Fremont Bridge is a bascule bridge with counterweight balancing and cantilevered "leafs" (the parts that raise and lower). It is painted blue and orange. The bridge clears the water by 30 feet and has opened and closed its double-leafed gates more than any other Seattle drawbridge. It is one of the busiest bascule bridges in the world.
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On May 16, 1942, Gordon Hirabayashi (1918-2012), University of Washington senior, Quaker, and conscientious objector, drives with his attorney to the Seattle FBI office and challenges the army's exclusion orders from the West Coast, orders which apply to all Japanese Americans and to their immigrant elders. To comply with these orders, which he believes are based upon racial prejudice and represent a violation of the United States Constitution and the rights of citizens, this principled American-born citizen of Japanese descent writes as part of a four-page statement: "I would be giving helpless consent to the denial of practically all of the things which give me incentive to live."
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In March 1943, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers begins construction of the massive, and top secret, Hanford Engineer Works along the Columbia River in Benton County. In less than two years, a construction crew that peaks at 51,000 workers constructs three nuclear reactors and many other facilities, along with a new "government city" at Richland. Plutonium produced at the Hanford reactors is used in the first ever atomic explosion at Alamagordo, New Mexico, and in the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan.
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On September 12, 1946, Washington Governor Mon C. Wallgren (1891-1961) presents Vashon Island writer Betty MacDonald (1907-1958) with the one millionth copy of MacDonald's book The Egg and I. Published with little fanfare on October 3, 1945, the book has captured national attention, topping nonfiction bestseller lists and creating intense public focus on MacDonald, her family, and the Pacific Northwest.
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On March 13, 1956, the voters of Seattle elect Gordon S. Clinton (1920-2011) as mayor. In the non-partisan race, Clinton bests one-term incumbent Allan Pomeroy. Clinton, who had overcome childhood poverty to become a successful Seattle attorney, will go on to serve two terms as the City's mayor. He will preside over eight years of rapid change and growth that sees the establishment of Metro, the triumph of the Century 21 World's Fair, and the birth of Seattle's Sister City Program, which he will consider to be one of his greatest accomplishments.
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On August 22, 1957, Yakima Valley native and Olympic boxing champion Thomas Peter "Pete" Rademacher (b. 1928) fights for the world heavyweight championship in his first professional bout, facing Floyd Patterson (1935-2006) in Seattle's Sicks' Stadium. It is an unprecedented event in boxing history and focuses national attention on Seattle at a time when the city has no major sports teams. And it is conceived and arranged by none other than the challenger himself.
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On May 13, 1961, the construction contract for Seattle's Alweg monorail is signed. The line, to be featured at the World's Fair in 1962, is to run on a raised track from the Century 21 Fairgrounds north of downtown Seattle along 5th Avenue to just north of Pine Street.
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On April 19, 1962, two days before the Seattle Century 21 World's Fair opens, the wife of Sixten Holmquist christens the Monorail. Sixten Holmquist is President of Wegematic Corporation, a subsidiary of Alwac International, Inc. which holds the U.S. patent to Alweg monorails.
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On April 21, 1962, at 11 a.m. the Century 21 World's Fair opens in Seattle for a 184 day run. The 74-acre fairgrounds are located at Seattle Center, north of downtown Seattle at the foot of Queen Anne Hill. The World's Fair was conceived to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, held in 1909 on the University of Washington campus. Its theme is to consider the possibilities of life in the 21st Century.
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In 1963, Dixy Lee Ray (1914-1994), professor of marine biology at University of Washington, accepts the directorship of Seattle's Pacific Science Center, which is in desperate need of strong leadership and funding. She serves for nine years and is widely credited for its survival.
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On May 1, 1963, Jim Whittaker, a sales manager for the Seattle-based firm Recreational Equipment, Inc. (REI) is the first American to reach the summit of Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world.
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On September 26, 1963, President John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) participates in groundbreaking ceremonies for the construction of a dual-purpose reactor -- designated the N Reactor -- at the Hanford nuclear reservation near Richland, Washington. The reactor was the ninth to be built at Hanford but the first designed to produce both weapons-grade plutonium for nuclear bombs and electricity for commercial and domestic use. Kennedy's visit commemorated both the start of plutonium production at the facility and the beginning of construction of its power-generating component.
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On November 19, 1971, Washington Senator Henry M. "Scoop" Jackson (1912-1983) announces his campaign for the 1972 Democratic presidential nomination. Speaking in the Old Senate Office Building with his family and Senate colleagues at his side, Jackson hearkens back to his New Deal roots but also touts his stand for "law and order," positioning his candidacy to the right of presumed front-runner Edmund S. Muskie (1914-1996) and eventual nominee George McGovern (1922-2012). Jackson's first try for the presidential nomination will fall far short, as he wins only the caucuses in his home state. Four years later Jackson will enter the 1976 presidential primaries as a front-runner but lose the nomination to Jimmy Carter (b. 1924).
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On June 11, 1977, Seattle Slew, a 3-year-old colt owned by a Yakima County couple, wins the Belmont Stakes in New York. The decisive victory secures Thoroughbred racing's Triple Crown, following Slew's successes at the Kentucky Derby on May 7 and the Preakness Stakes in Maryland on May 21. Seattle Slew is only the 10th Triple Crown winner and the first to accomplish the feat with a perfect record.
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On November 6, 1985, astronaut Bonnie J. Dunbar (b. 1949) -- the first woman from Washington state to become an astronaut -- completes her first mission in space, when the shuttle Challenger lands at Edwards Air Force Base in California after orbiting the earth for a week. The mission will turn out to be the last successful flight for the Challenger: The shuttle will be destroyed during liftoff less than three months later, killing all seven crew members on board. Undeterred by the tragedy, Dunbar will fly into space four more times before retiring from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 2005.
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On March 30, 1988, explorer and educator Helen Thayer (b. 1937) becomes the first woman to solo to the magnetic North Pole. Accompanied by her dog Charlie, a husky mix trained to warn of nearby polar bears, Thayer completes her 364-mile journey despite starvation and incessant polar bear danger. The trip becomes the basis for her 1994 book Polar Dream.File 9849: Full Text >

Nearly seven years in the making, the Iron Goat Trail officially opens to hikers on October 2, 1993, at the Martin Creek Trailhead, located in King County off U.S. 2 about six miles east of Skykomish. Built along the grade once used by the Great Northern Railway, the four-mile hiking trail completes the first phase of a joint project between Volunteers for Outdoor Washington, the U.S. Forest Service and the Washington State Department of Transportation.
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At 8:32 a.m. on March 26, 2000, Seattle's Kingdome is imploded. The Kingdome stadium's 660-foot concrete dome is the world's largest. Thousands of spectators crowd Seattle's streets, hills, sidewalks, and waterfront to watch the dome's destruction. Onlookers view the implosion outside a "restricted zone" that extends several blocks around the stadium. The blast sets off a small earthquake measuring 2.3 on the Richter Scale. The Kingdome, originally called the King County Multipurpose Domed Stadium, opened on March 27, 1976.
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On July 27, 2008, Seattle Mariners broadcaster Dave Niehaus (1935-2010) receives the Ford C. Frick Award in a ceremony at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. The award, given annually for excellence in broadcasting, comes midway through his 32nd season with the team. It earns him a permanent place in the Hall's "Scribes and Mikemen" area and represents the high point of a career during which Niehaus achieved extraordinary popularity as the voice of the Mariners.
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This is an interview with Mike Fleming concerning Seattle's Alaskan Way Viaduct. Mike Fleming was born in Seattle in 1941 and grew up in Yesler Terrace. He worked in banking for many years and has had a lifelong fascination with infrastructure and engineering. He also has very fond memories of the city during the 1940s and 1950s. The interview was conducted in October 2012 by Dominic Black.
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This interview with Mike Peringer concerning Seattle's Alaskan Way Viaduct was conducted under the Western Avenue exit of the viaduct in January 2012 by Dominic Black.. Peringer was a reporter present on April 4, 1953, at the dedication of the viaduct.
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This is an interview with Alaskan Way Viaduct Program Manager Ron Paananen. Paananen oversaw the viaduct replacement project for six years, from 2005 through 2011. The interview was conducted in January 2012 by Dominic Black.
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Phyllis Lamphere (b. 1922), a native Seattleite, has been deeply involved in the city's civic life for more than 50 years. She served on the city council from 1967 to 1978, where she was instrumental in pushing through multiple reforms and worked on many of the most contentious issues of a contentious era. After an unsuccessful run for mayor in 1977, Lamphere went on to work for the federal government, and she later formed her own public-affairs consulting firm. Among many other achievements, she was a driving force behind the creation of the Washington State Convention & Trade Center and served on its board for more than 20 years. In July and August 2013, Lamphere was interviewed at her apartment in Seattle's Horizon House by HistoryLink.org intern Callan Carow. In these People's Histories, organized by topic, Lamphere recounts some of the important events of her career in politics and public service and provides an inside look at the workings of government and the life of an extraordinary woman. . This first segment of the oral history covers her early years, her first involvement in civic affairs, her 1967 election to the Seattle City Council and the fundamental reforms that came during her tenure, and her efforts to address complex problems through cooperation among local governments.
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Phyllis Lamphere (b. 1922), a native Seattleite, has been deeply involved in the city's civic life for more than 50 years. She served on the city council from 1967 to 1978, where she was instrumental in pushing through multiple reforms and worked on many of the most contentious issues of a contentious era. After an unsuccessful run for mayor in 1977, Lamphere went on to work for the federal government, and she later formed her own public-affairs consulting firm. Among many other achievements, she was a driving force behind the creation of the Washington State Convention & Trade Center and served on its board for more than 20 years. In July and August 2013, Lamphere was interviewed at her apartment in Seattle's Horizon House by HistoryLink.org intern Callan Carow. In these People's Histories, organized by topic, Lamphere recounts some of the important events of her career in politics and public service and provides an inside look at the workings of government and the life of an extraordinary woman. This part of her oral history recounts her leadership of the National League of Cities, an unsuccessful race for mayor, working for the federal Economic Development Administration, and her efforts to strengthen relationships with the Scandinavian countries.
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Phyllis Lamphere (b. 1922), a native Seattleite, has been deeply involved in the city's civic life for more than 50 years. She served on the city council from 1967 to 1978, where she was instrumental in pushing through multiple reforms and worked on many of the most contentious issues of a contentious era. After an unsuccessful run for mayor in 1977, Lamphere went on to work for the federal government, and she later formed her own public-affairs consulting firm. Among many other achievements, she was a driving force behind the creation of the Washington State Convention & Trade Center and served on its board for more than 20 years. In July and August 2013, Lamphere was interviewed at her apartment in Seattle's Horizon House by HistoryLink.org intern Callan Carow. In these People's Histories, organized by topic, Lamphere recounts some of the important events of her career in politics and public service and provides an inside look at the workings of government and the life of an extraordinary woman. Here she discusses her long involvement with the Washington State Convention & Trade Center, from its initial conception in 1980 through 2002.
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Phyllis Lamphere (b. 1922), a native Seattleite, has been deeply involved in the city's civic life for more than 50 years. She served on the city council from 1967 to 1978, where she was instrumental in pushing through multiple reforms and worked on many of the most contentious issues of a contentious era. After an unsuccessful run for mayor in 1977, Lamphere went on to work for the federal government, and she later formed her own public-affairs consulting firm. Among many other achievements, she was a driving force behind the creation of the Washington State Convention & Trade Center and served on its board for more than 20 years. In July and August 2013, Lamphere was interviewed at her apartment in Seattle's Horizon House by HistoryLink.org intern Callan Carow. In these People's Histories, organized by topic, Lamphere recounts some of the important events of her career in politics and public service and provides an inside look at the workings of government and the life of an extraordinary woman. In this next-to-last segment of her oral history, she talks about her life after leaving government service -- running her own public-relations firm, working with the Municipal League, fighting a losing battle to build Seattle Commons, serving on the Seattle Parks Foundation, and the successful effort to develop South Lake Union Park and the South Lake Union streetcar line.
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Phyllis Lamphere (b. 1922), a native Seattleite, has been deeply involved in the city's civic life for more than 50 years. She served on the city council from 1967 to 1978, where she was instrumental in pushing through multiple reforms and worked on many of the most contentious issues of a contentious era. After an unsuccessful run for mayor in 1977, Lamphere went on to work for the federal government, and she later formed her own public-affairs consulting firm. Among many other achievements, she was a driving force behind the creation of the Washington State Convention & Trade Center and served on its board for more than 20 years. In July and August 2013, Lamphere was interviewed at her apartment in Seattle's Horizon House by HistoryLink.org intern Callan Carow. In these People's Histories, organized by topic, Lamphere recounts some of the important events of her career in politics and public service and provides an inside look at the workings of government and the life of an extraordinary woman. In this last segment, Lamphere tells of her role in the relocation of the Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI) to a new home in South Lake Union Park, her lifelong connection to the lake, efforts to preserve the most recent 50 years of Seattle's history, and her work to enrich the lives of her fellow residents at Horizon House.
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This is an interview with Al Levine, former deputy executive director of the Seattle Housing Authority, on lessons learned from the redevelopment of the authority's Holly Park project into the NewHolly development between 1995 and 2005. The interview was conducted on March 13, 2014, by Joshua McNichols.
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In this interview, former Seattle mayor Charles Royer (b. 1939) discusses the housing crisis that faced older residents of Seattle in the early 1980s, and how the City of Seattle and the Seattle Housing Authority created a locally funded senior housing program in response. The interview was conducted in 2014 by Dominic Black.
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In this interview Doris Koo, who oversaw Phase 1 redevelopment of the Holly Park project in South Seattle for the Seattle Housing Authority (SHA), describes how changes in federal funding for public housing necessitated new partnerships between SHA, the City of Seattle, and the mayor's office. Doris Koo came to the Seattle Housing Authority as director of development in 1994, after several years as a community activist and organizer in New York City, and served for seven years. The interview was conducted in 2014 by Dominic Black.
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In this interview, conducted by Dominic Black, Kristin O'Donnell, a Yesler Terrace resident -- and enthusiastic community activist -- since the early 1970s, recalls some of her Yesler Terrace neighbors and fellow activists and organizers.
File 10771: Full Text >

In this interview, former Seattle Mayor Norm Rice (b. 1943) describes how one person's comments at a hearing on low-income housing helped him find his "true north" in relation to housing the homeless and people needing shelter. The interview was conducted on March 11, 2014, by Joshua McNichols.
File 10770: Full Text >

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